While Colla has always remained predominently a director for television, he inadvertently added an additional theatrical feature credit to the two he already had. He directed the two 1978 pilot episodes of the classic science fiction series Battlestar Galactica (featuring John Colicos and Ed Begley, Jr.), which were re-edited into a theatrical feature, premiering in the spring before the series actually started its televsion run in mid-September, thereby becoming the de facto start of the Battlestar Galactica franchise.